The disclosed technology relates generally to techniques for interference mitigation when decoding codewords at a wireless communications receiver. More particularly, the disclosed technology relates to techniques for determining a time or frequency interval over which interference characteristics of a wireless channel are approximately stationary and for estimating interference properties during that time or frequency interval so that interference can be mitigated during decoding.
Decoding performance in a wireless network is often limited by interference caused by other in- or out-of-network users, e.g., inter-cell interference in a cellular network. Interference mitigation techniques may be used to identify interference characteristics so that interference is reduced and/or partially canceled at a communications receiver, leading to improved decoding performance. However, interference is often non-stationary and frequency selective due to, e.g., non-coordination and asynchronization between interfering transmitters. Furthermore, an estimate of interference is likely to be unreliable if too few samples over a limited time or frequency interval are used to form the estimate. An estimate of interference is also likely to be unreliable if samples on which the estimate is based are taken over too large an interval, i.e., over a time or frequency interval in which the interference exhibits non-stationary characteristics.